DGCA may issue new advisory on Samsung Galaxy Note7 on planes

Samsung officially recalled one million of its Galaxy Note 7 mobile phones sold before September 15 after finding that some of their batteries had exploded or caught fire.ET Bureau | October 08, 2016, 08:27 IST

NEW DELHI: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) may issue a fresh advisory next week on carrying Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 smartphones on board flights, a senior official at the regulator said. This follows reports of a Samsung handset emitting smoke on a flight in the US.

“We are in touch with the US Federal Aviation Authority. Advisory likely to come next week after FAA revises its earlier issued guidelines on carriage of Samsung Galaxy Note 7 phones in flights,” said the official, who did not want to be named. A previous advisory, issued in early September in line with aviation regulators in several other counties after incidents of the Galaxy Note 7 catching fire, advised passengers against carrying the phone in “switched on” mode on board flights.

Samsung investigated the problem and found that the rechargeable batteries in the phones were at fault. It recalled the handsets before relaunching the model with a new battery. DGCA withdrew its advisory after Samsung informed it that it fixed the problem and that it would not sell phones made before September 15 to Indian consumers.

The Korean company is expected to begin selling the model in India on October 28, ET reported Thursday.

According to media reports, citing the owner of the phone that emitted smoke on board a Southwest Airline plane on Wednesday, the device was a Galaxy Note 7 that he got as a replacement for the original one he purchased.

In a press release issued after the Southwest incident, Samsung said: “Until we are able to retrieve the device, we cannot confirm that this incident involves the new Note 7. We are working with the authorities and Southwest now to recover the device and confirm the cause. Once we have examined the device we will have more information to share.”

The US aviation regulator is inquiring into Wednesday’s issue. “We do not know whether the phones that caught fire in the US on Wednesday was made post September 15, 2016, or not. We will wait for the FAA inquiry to get over,” said the DGCA official.